The Texas rat snake was just as much of a speed demon as deadly vipers, challenging long-held notions about snake adaptations. When a snake strikes, it literally moves faster than the blink of an eye, whipping its head forward so quickly that it can experience accelerations of more than 20 Gs. Such stats come from studies of how a snake lunges, bites and kills, which have focused mostly on vipers, in part because these snakes rely so heavily on their venomous chomps. "It's the lynchpin of their strategy as predators," says Rulon Clark at San Diego State University. "Natural selection...

Academics at The University of Manchester have dismissed the long-held argument that the ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra was killed by a snake bite. Andrew Gray, curator of herpetology at Manchester Museum, says venomous snakes in Egypt -- cobras or vipers -- would have been too large to get unseen into the queen's palace. He was speaking to Egyptologist Dr Joyce Tyldesley in a new video which is part of a new online course introducing ancient Egyptian history, using six items from the Museum's collection. According to Dr Tyldesley, the ancient accounts say a snake hid in a basket of figs...

The species was thought to be extinct after a label incorrectly read that the snakes inhabited only an area of northwestern Iran. "For that reason they were thought to be extinct for 140 years," says Ettling. "It wasn't until 1983 that a couple German entomologists rediscovered them in Northeastern Turkey so they were off a little bit." As soon as the word got out that the rare snake species were still alive and slithering in eastern Turkey, snake collectors rushed to scoop up as many of the already wiped-out species as they could.

Some people just can’t let go and Dan Rather is a case in point. Almost six years after he questioned George Bush’s National Guard service Rather is still defending the report that led to his eventual departure from the network. Give it a rest Dan. From TVNewser Rather, of course, famously parted ways with CBS after a story about Former President George W. Bush’s service in the National Guard was found to be based on faulty documents. Rather sued CBS over his ouster, and most of the charges have since been dismissed. Still, Rather continues to defend the report to...

Magical thinking goes beyond “belief without evidence” to the point of “belief in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary”. After midnight on a bitterly cold 4th of February, not far from our home, a young Mormon mother named Christine Jonson bundled up her two children, loaded them in the car and drove to the middle of the cable bridge between Pasco and Kennewick Washington. She kissed her children goodbye, lifted them one by one over the bridge railing, and dropped them into the Columbia River. Christine later recollected hearing faint splashes in the icy water 40 feet below....

Here it is again Resty, so you can pick out three things that are untrue. Any three. Mormon Missionary Deception Method: 1. Convince you of their sincerity 2. Trick you into expressing faith first in the Book of Mormon by praying and asking for a sign (this takes you off the objective ground of Biblical truth and puts you into subjective ground of feelings) 3. Convince you that the Bible has errors in its translation 4. Trick you into expressing faith in the prophet Joseph Smith 5. Trick you into expressing faith in the Restoration of the “Gospel” (see Galatians...

Link to page with YouTube Video.(Video caption: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) speaking at a forum on national housing policy on December 11, 2006. Three weeks after making this speech at the Treasury Department, Frank became Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Frank on Democrats taking over regulatory reform:“You will see far less difference with Democrats taking over in the Financial Services regulatory area than in virtually any other area of public policy, because we did work together on things like regulatory relief and we have more to do yet in the deregulation. One of the things we did was...

Tucson’s skies will be busier than usual this month and next with an influx of out-of-town military jets. Dozens of Air National Guard F-16 pilots are escaping the chill in their home states to train here in the program known as Operation Snowbird. Ten F-16s from New Jersey will arrive within the first two weeks of January. They’ll be followed mid-month by about a dozen F-16s from Vermont, and another dozen or so from Ohio at the end of the month and into the first week of February. Operation Snowbird is run by the Arizona Air National Guard’s 162nd Fighter...

McALLEN, Texas - During three years in the low minors, John Odom never really made a name for himself. That sure changed this week - he's the guy the Calgary Vipers traded for a bunch of bats. "I don't really care," he said Friday. "It'll make a better story if I make it to the big leagues." For now, Odom is headed to the Laredo Broncos of the United League. They got him Tuesday from Calgary of the Golden Baseball League for a most unlikely price: 10 Prairie Sticks Maple Bats, double-dipped black, 34-inch, C243 style "They just wanted some...

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (May 1, 2006) -- The Vipers of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169 assumed authority from the Gunfighters of HMLA-369, for providing close air support, escort, surveillance, and reconnaissance to coalition ground and assault support forces in western Iraq. Having been in Iraq for less than two weeks, the Vipers, part of Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, received plenty of help from their predecessors in preparing for the dangerous mission ahead. "HMLA-369 did an incredible job of setting us up for success. They flew most of our aircraft commanders on numerous missions, provided...

US to sell F-16s to Pak, Bush tells Manmohan Press Trust of India New Delhi, March 25: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today conveyed to President George W. Bush India's "great disappointment" on US proposal to sell F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan. "The Prime Minister received a telephone call from the US President this evening. They had a wide-ranging conversation," PMO spokesman Sanjaya Baru said. "The US President, among other things, spoke about his administration's decision to propose the transfer of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan. "The Prime Minister expressed India's great disappointment at this decision which could have negative consequences for...

WASHINGTON - When a believing Muslim is summoned to the United States due to life's circumstances, Saudi Arabian authorities disseminate through a network of major American mosques, like other religious directives, clear ways as to how one should act in his new surroundings. Take, for example, a document signed by the cultural attache at the Saudi embassy in Washington that instructs Muslims arriving in the United States not to initiate a greeting when meeting Christians or Jews, and never to convey good wishes marking a Christian or Jewish holiday. In general, the attache recommends that the Muslim believer avoid friendships...

<p>Howard Dean: ``I don't know. There are many theories about it. The most interesting theory that I've heard so far -- which is nothing more than a theory, it can't be proved -- is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis. Now who knows what the real situation is?''</p>